How to Begin Your Next Email Marketing Program Assessment

So you’re thinking it’s time to evaluate your email marketing program. Maybe you’re concerned that trends have changed, your content is outdated, or that you’re missing opportunities by not having a firm understanding of what’s working to drive results. It can seem like a daunting project. And depending on how complex your email marketing campaigns are, chances are, it’s unlikely that it’s a simple task.

There’s a lot that deserves regular review. Email marketing is a symphony of data, technology, content, strategy and workflows. If there’s any area that’s underperforming, it dulls the sound. So where do you begin to find the instruments that need tuning?

It starts with your goals for the assessment and your current pain points. Define what those are and that will guide the rest of your research and analysis. To get you started, here’s a few questions to ask yourself at the beginning steps of an email assessment. This can be turned into a survey for other key stakeholders who will impact, or be impacted by the results of the email assessment – day-to-day producers, marketing managers, sales managers, etc.

Phase 2: Research and Analysis

Depending on feedback from phase one, you can create a list of questions to help guide research and analysis. A few questions are repeated if they’re relevant in more than one focus area. If you’re compiling these questions into a stakeholder survey, you can remove the duplicates, or send only the sections of questions to the team members that will have the most perspective and feedback in those areas.

Services, Products and Content

What types of content are you currently promoting?

What types of content would you like to promote?

Are there products or services that benefit from a seasonal or cyclical emphasis?

What communications are mandatory?

Email Creative and Content

Who is the audience for this message?

What are the primary and secondary messages?

What action should recipients take and why should they take that action?

When do they receive the message?

Where are they reading the message (device, email client, etc.)?

Is the design optimized for my top subscriber devices and email clients?

How is the success of the email measured?

Is the email driving the desired success?

Where does this email fit into the overall marketing strategy and goals?

Does the email reflect current branding guidelines?

Are there any broken links?

Is there any outdated content?

Does copy align with the way your organization is positioning your services and products?

Which links are receiving the most clicks?

Are you using a sending domain that is authenticated?

Are your emails reflective of current email design trends?

Is your subject line and preheader text relevant to your message and device-friendly?

Segmentation and Marketing Automation Strategies

Outline any existing marketing automation integrations (ex: CRM).

How do your email campaigns support your overall marketing strategy and goals?

Email Team Workflow and Efficiencies

How many team members are involved in the email planning, creation, deployment and reporting processes?

What is the internal approval process before an email is sent?

Do you have adequate permissions for each team member in your ESP?

What are the current pain points and challenges?

Document key workflows for planning, creation, deployment and reporting processes. Who is involved and how long does it typically take each team member to complete their responsibilities?

Email Service Provider Benefits and Limitations

Are you happy with your current email service provider?

Does your provider have a feature set that allows you to work efficiently?

Does your provider have a feature set that lets you carry out desired segmentation, creative and reporting strategies?

Are there features your provider doesn’t have that you wish they did?

Are there pain points that another email service provider could potentially resolve?

Phase 3: Recap Findings and Recommendations

The final phase of an email assessment is summarizing key findings and documenting strengths and opportunities. The questions in the first two phases should allow you to gather information that provides a comprehensive look at what’s working well and what could use improvement. After you bring it all together, you should be left with a road map for future email success (which you can learn more about here).